NPRA appeals to EPA for greenhouse gas regulation rethink

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation of greenhouse gasses emitted by US petroleum refineries could drive many refineries out of business, impacting significantly on the country’s economic and national security, according to Charles T. Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA).

Drevna stated in a letter to the EPA delivered on 4 March that the regulations ‘will place domestic fuel manufacturers at an almost insurmountable competitive disadvantage to the foreign companies and countries that want to ship foreign gasoline, foreign diesel fuel and foreign jet fuel to the United States.’

The letter supplements an oral testimony by NPRA at an EPA ‘listening session’ on the proposal to issue a New Source Performance Standard for greenhouse gas emissions from America’s domestic refineries.

The letter highlights the recent decline of other American manufacturing industries as a warning of the effect that the proposed regulations could have on employment prospects in the industry. He also pointed out that currently 95% of the gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, jet fuel and lubricants used every day by Americans is manufactured in the United States.

Drevna concludes, arguing that ‘many legislators on Capitol Hill and a large majority of the American people want this country to grow its domestic manufacturing base, not shrink it. They want to create and preserve American jobs, not export them to other countries. And they want affordable, reliable, domestically produced transportation fuels, not energy pipe dreams and a supply of transportation fuels subject to the political whims of foreign companies and governments that may or may not share America’s interests.’